Understanding
Cord Blood and Stem Cells

Cord
blood is obtained from the umbilical cord at the time of childbirth.

The blood
has to be collected within 10 minutes of the birth. Cord blood is
one of the richest sources of the stem cells. Stem cells have proved
to be a boom for the mankind thanks to the so much research work carried
out by various medical organizations.

Stem
cells are the basic building blocks of our immune system. The stem
cells have the ability to transform into other cells thus enabling
normal growth of a human body. That is why they are required for the
treatment of so many diseases.

The stem cells from cord blood are important because these cells are
young and adaptive and thus they easily adapt according to the person
and do not face the risk of rejection, where as the stem cells taken
from the bone marrow does not have this ability and thus they face
the problem of high rejection rate and it becomes a very cumbersome
and tiring task to find the matching set of marrow.

Therefore
stem cells from the cord blood are preferred over the stem cells from
the bone marrow. Since 1968, cord blood is being used for various
life saving treatments. Due to the promising research associated with
the stem cells the numbers of diseases that can be treated using stem
cells are growing rapidly.

Stem
cells are used for treatment of acute leukemia, anemia and other various
types of blood cancers. Stem cells are also used in treatment of other
cancers such as brain cancer, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, small-cell
lung cancer and the list goes on. The stem cells are very helpful
in treating various disorders related to blood.

Stem
cells also find their uses in treatment of various kinds of genetic
disorders and metabolic disorders like Hunter Syndrome, Wolman disease,
Krabbe disease, Sandhoff disease etc. Many of these diseases have
not been heard off but these all are dangerous diseases and can prove
to be fatal if not treated timely.

The emerging
applications and uses of the cord blood are countless that is why
cord blood is treated very preciously these days. As the stem cells
are required for proper development of the organs therefore research
has been advanced even to the avenues of treatment of brain injury
and bone marrow failure disorders. Beside this research is being carried
out for finding the cure of various heart diseases, cerebral palsy
and type I diabetes.

Many
parents due to shear lack of knowledge waste this valuable resource.
To avoid this various cord blood organizations have been set up and
also large number of cord blood banks have been opened.

The research
in the field of stem cells is a promising prospect and the researchers
are trying to uncomplicate the number of problems that are coming
in the way of successfully using this resource. With all the possible
help and funding these researchers are getting from the government,
they actually might succeed in getting rid of all these problems.